National Book Critics Award

Romantic Outlaws:The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley won the National Book Critics Circle award on March 18, 2016. In their own lifetimes, these women were called “whores.” Wollstonecraft was known as “a hyena in petticoats.” Shelley’s critics said she was “monstrous” and “perverse.” Now, here they are, at the center of a book that has just won a national award. Incredible.